Bricker Amendment Fails by One Vote, Conservative Attempt to Limit Treaty Power Defeated

On February 26, 1954, the United States Senate rejected the Bricker Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment that would have severely limited the President’s treaty-making power. The amendment, backed by conservative Republicans and corporate groups including the American Bar Association and Chamber of Commerce, failed by a single vote—60 to 31, falling one vote short of the required two-thirds majority.

Senator John Bricker (R-Ohio) introduced his amendment in response to fears that United Nations human rights treaties could supersede domestic law and extend federal power into areas traditionally left to states. The amendment would have required implementing legislation for all treaties and executive agreements, subjected them to the same constitutional limits as domestic legislation, and allowed states to invalidate federal agreements affecting matters within their jurisdiction.

Corporate groups supported the Bricker Amendment for strategic reasons beyond its stated purpose. The American Medical Association feared UN health initiatives might lead to socialized medicine. Southern businesses and politicians worried that UN human rights conventions could be used to challenge segregation. The Chamber of Commerce opposed potential international labor standards. The American Bar Association initially endorsed the amendment, though later withdrew support for modified versions.

President Eisenhower opposed the amendment as a dangerous limitation on executive authority in foreign affairs, especially during the Cold War. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles worked intensively to defeat it, ultimately promising that the administration would not enter human rights treaties—a promise that effectively achieved the amendment’s goals through executive policy rather than constitutional change.

The amendment’s failure preserved presidential treaty power but at a cost: Eisenhower’s commitment not to pursue human rights treaties delayed U.S. ratification of international human rights conventions for decades. The United States did not ratify the Genocide Convention until 1988 and has still not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Bricker fight established a pattern where conservative opposition could shape policy even without winning formal constitutional changes.